Lesley University, 58 vs. SUNY Cobleskill, 68

Records: 
Lesley University Lynx (5-19, 2-10 NAC)
SUNY Delhi Fighting Tigers (5-16, 2-9 NAC) 

Location: Lexington, Mass.-Minuteman Gymnasium

Date: Saturday, February 8, 2025

THE LEAD— Despite losing a hard-fought 68-58 battle to SUNY Cobleskill Saturday afternoon, Lesley University men's basketball student-athlete Malachi Howard (Winter Haven, Fla.) reached the 1,000 career point mark after converting on a layup with 11:20 left to play.

HOW IT HAPPENED

• SUNY Cobleskill's offense came out fast as the visitors raced out to an early 15-6 lead after an Elijah Morris three with 13:00 left in the first. However, Lesley picked away at the deficit and found themselves down one (15-14) thanks to an 8-0 run before the Tigers called timeout. Christian Castro (Chesapeake, Va.) led the rally with four points on back-to-back jumpers. 
• Coming out of the break, Lesley grabbed its first lead of the day thanks to a Kai Burridge (New York, N.Y.) three-pointer. From then on, both sides continued to exchange baskets throughout the first half and with the Tigers up two (27-25) with less than two minutes until halftime (1:54), CJ Leonard (Raynham, Mass.) evened things at 27 with a driving layup. However, SUNY Cobleskill was able to give itself breathing room going into half thanks to a 6-0, which allowed the Tigers to hold a 33-27 at halftime. 
• In the second half, SUNY Cobleskill continued where it left off at the end of the first and pushed its lead to 14 (51-35) thanks to an 18-8 run that led to a Lesley timeout. Chrischen Chung guided the offense during the stretch with six points highlighted by back-to-back threes.
• After the timeout, SUNY Cobleskill's momentum was not deterred as the Tigers would eventually grab their largest lead (59-39) with 9:13 left to play, thanks to another Chung three-pointer. Despite the large deficit, the Lynx would claw back and pull within seven (61-54) courtesy of a 15-2 rally leading to a Tigers timeout with under two minutes remaining (1:30). Hezekiah Brown (Stafford, Va.) spearheaded the run with six-points.
• However, after the timeout, SUNY Cobleskill held on thanks to solid play on both sides of the ball and secured the 68-58 win. 

INSIDE THE NUMBERS 

• Along with scoring his 1,000th career point, Howard led all Lesley scorers with 17 points on 6-12 shooting. The Lynx's other scorer to reach double-figures was Leonard, who finished with 16 points while going 5-8 from the field.
• Howard also led the squad in rebounds on the afternoon with nine. 
• Marquay Tanksley led all scorers on the day with 22 points on 7-12 shooting. 
• On the glass, Jermaine Wheeler grabbed a game-high 11 rebounds.

UP NEXT

• Lesley will have a few days off before its regular-season finale versus VTSU Lyndon on Tuesday, February 11, at 7:30 p.m.